To Him who made great lights,
For His mercy endures
forever-
The sun to rule by day
For His mercy endures
forever
(Psalms 136:7-8)

As we noted in previous chapters when the sun goes through cycles of high and low activity the earth - living creatures and manmade electromagnetic objects - are affected. The impact is across a broad spectrum. The author has also uncovered links between solar maximums and increasing natural disasters. We saw how human aggression was multiplied during the years of peak solar activity in the 1989-'91 and again in the 2000-2002 period. This time frame (1989-2002) was also accompanied by a marked increase in earthquakes, volcanic eruptions and severe storms.

Mount Penatubo erupted in 1991, as did Mt. Aetna in conjunction with the end of the solar maximum. Then two Mexican volcanoes, Mt. Popocatpetyl and Mt Colima erupted in 2000. Going back to a previous sunspot cycle, Mt. St. Helens exploded hot plumes of smoke and ash into the sky in 1980. These were all major events, not just periods of increased seismic or geothermal activity around volcanoes. Mt. Aetna has a habit of erupting in tandem with peaks in solar activity, as the eruptions of 2000, 1991, 1969 and 1908, solar maximum years, reveal.

Mt. Lassen erupted for the last time, in 1917 during WWI at the peak of the sunspot cycle. Mt. Popocataptyl and Mt. Colima became active again along with Aetna during Sunspot Cycle 23 in 2000. El Chicon erupted in 1982 during the last year of the 1979-'82 solar maximum.

These are a sampling of the major eruptions that occurred over the past century. Not every significant eruption takes place at the peak of the solar maximum but the majority, have taken place in tandem, and the others outside of the peak years happened either one year before or after that period. Now, it is of great interest to note that the largest volcanic eruption on record took place in 1882 (solar maximum 1883-'86).

While it was during the increasing phase one year from the maximum period, Krakatoa exploded with massive fury on the last leg of the Venus transit (1874-'82). In fact, that was the final transit before the June 2004 event. Do not be misled by the reassurances that geologists routinely hand out concerning volcanic eruptions and earthquakes.

Many scientists claim that there has not been an increase in volcanic or seismic activity over the past half century and we are not experiencing anything unusual or abnormal. The historical record completely contradicts that claim. There were very few volcanic eruptions and not many major earthquakes in the first half of the 20th century.

Increasing Solar Output- Rising Natural Disasters
Natural disasters including massive flooding and severe storms (hurricanes, typhoons) began increasing in intensity and frequency in the latter half of the 20th century. A violent land earthquake hit Assam in Northeast India in 1950 measuring 9.0 on the Richter scale. In 1960 the world's strongest recorded quake devastated Chile, with a 9.5 reading. It generated a 30-foot tsunami that wiped out entire villages in Chile and then raced across the Pacific to kill 61 people in Hawaii.

Another mega-quake (9.2) rocked Prince William Sound Alaska in 1964 killing 25 and generating a tsunami that took another 110 lives.
In 1976 the most devastating earthquake to hit China in the 20th century killed an estimated 600,000 in the Tang Shan province. The trembler leveled a 20 square mile section of the city. A huge earthquake razed skyscrapers and killed 10,000 in Mexico City in 1985.

In 1988, another large trembler leveled buildings and towns in Armenia killing 25,000 people. San Francisco was blasted by a large quake in 1989. More than 40,000 people were killed in Iran in 1990 and 25,00 in 2003 tremors hit that country. A large quake rocked Kobe Japan in 1995, taking 6,430 lives. In 1999 a 7.6 quake damaged every town on the island of Taiwan. El Salvador was the scene of a devastating 7.9 earthquake on January 13, 2001, a strong quake also hammered Seattle in that year.

Scientists are obviously trying to assuage public anxiety about rising natural disasters and there is some truth to their claim that there is no overall earthquake increase. While the total number of tremors remains about the same we are not concerned about the swarms of very small quakes that have no impact on human life. What is of concern to us are the numbers of 6.0 and above earthquakes that have the potential to do moderate to severe damage. In fact, those quakes have been on the increase since 1950.

An examination of the frequency of large-scale earthquakes that occurred last century is revealing. Seven of the ten biggest tremors of the 20th century happened after 1950. In fact, there was a sharp increase in the number of super-quakes and volcanic eruptions after 1960. That is a pivotal year because it coincides with the peak number of sunspots recorded (190) as well as the largest earthquake in history. Is it an accident that 2012 is exactly 52 years after this key date?

Now, let us move on and nail down this study in scientific terms by comparative analysis. The frequency in the occurrence of earthquakes analyzed from data accumulated since 1900 shows that there were 120 strong (6-6.9) tremors, 18 major (7-7.9); and 1 great quake (8-8.9) on an average annually (1900-2000). However, a chart for the number of earthquakes worldwide from the last decade is more revealing of recent tremor activity and trends.

In 1994 there were 161 strong, 13 major and 2 great earthquakes. The next year there were 185 strong, 22 major and 3 great earthquakes. In 2000 we find 153 strong, 16 major and 4 great earthquakes. There is an obvious statistical deviation from the norm over the course of these years.

The raw data used to calculate the average was obtained from the USGS. They did not weight their overall average. We have a problem with that because if you take the period from 1900-1949 the average number of strong, major and great earthquakes, drops precipitously. The average they came up with distorts what actually happened in the real world between 1900-1949 and 1950-1999. For the first half of the century there were few 6.5 tremors, very few 7.5 strong and seldom any above 8.5 quakes and no above 9 mega-quakes.

We can plainly see that the 100-year average masks the actual trend toward increasing large-scale earthquakes over the past 54 years. Examining the data again we see that there was double the average of 1 great earthquake in '94, triple the average in '95 and quadruple the average in 2000. That represents a huge statistical departure, as does the jump from 120 strong on average to 161, 185 and 153 in the 1990s. Those are leaps of 30-50%, once again statistically significant and they did not occur as one-year deviations that could be tossed out if they sank right back to or below the average the next year.

After Mt. Aetna and Mt. Lassen erupted in synch with the solar maximum in the opening decades of last century, major volcanic activity subsided until the 1960s. As with earthquakes, the quantum leap in activity came in the 1990s. Major eruptions occurred in tandem in Africa, Italy, Russia, the Philippines and Mexico. The earth was trembling and exploding throughout the 1990s.

So please ask yourself why scientists are downplaying and even denying the fact that natural disasters have been increasing since 1960? Contradictorily, they do so, while feverishly mobilizing teams to study earthquakes and volcanoes with the hope of refining their predictive models!

In the author's opinion, the 2012 Mayan calendar is the best predictive tool of rising natural disasters and climate change.